Wheelchair Championship side beaten in final

• Match Report as Wigan Warriors Wheelchair Championship side beaten in Grand Final.
• The Warriors led at the break but an intense second half saw North Wales Crusaders come back to snatch the win.
• FT | North Wales Crusaders 46-40 Wigan Warriors.

Wigan Warriors Wheelchair Championship team were beaten by North Wales Crusaders in the Grand Final on Sunday afternoon.

It was a battling start to the Wheelchair Championship Grand Final at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester and it wasn’t until the 8th minute that the first points were on the board as Ste Halsey knocked over a penalty to give Crusaders the 2-0 lead.

Wigan then took control with a number of tries before the half time break. Nathan Roberts started the momentum with a great move down the right flank, which Greenhalgh was unable to convert.

Danny Dutson crossed for a try from the interchange bench after a nice link-up with Nathan Roberts close to the goal line, this time Mark Williams improved the score to 10-2 with the conversion.

Nathan Roberts again was the provider as Wigan got a third try through Chris Greenhalgh who went in on the left edge, Greenhalgh converted his own effort to see Wigan at 16-2. Nathan Roberts was involved again as Wigan added a fourth score, this time in a spectacular solo effort, with Greenhalgh again converting and it was 22-2.

North Wales Crusaders had the last say in the first half as Ste Halsey chased a kick through from Mason Baker to get the ball down, converting his own effort to see the score at 22-8 in Wigan’s favour at the turnaround.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, Crusaders came out determined for the second half and a double from Lucy Roberts allowed the Welsh side to reduce the deficit, though another score for Wigan meant it was 20-28 in the Cherry & Whites favour.

Ste Halsey scored either side of an effort from Ricki Davies and Wigan found themselves 36-28 down after an incredible first half. Halsey added his fourth score of the day in the 67th minute after evading a tackle, converting his own try once more and it was 42-28.

Going into the final 10 minutes, Crusaders added a final try before Wigan fought back with a quickfire double from Nathan Roberts and Mark Williams, both were converted by Williams and it was 46-40 but the Crusaders saw out the final few minutes of the game to remain unbeaten in 2023 and lift the Wheelchair Championship title.

Gallery:

North Wales Crusaders: Ste Halsey, Mason Baker, Lucie Roberts, Harry Jones, Jonathan Gill.

Interchanges: Wyatt Jones, Jessica Booth, Ricki Davies, Jakub Wasieczko, Matthew Turner.

Tries: Halsey (4), Roberts (2), Davies, Jones

Goals: Halsey 7/9

Wigan Warriors: Chris Greenhalgh, Reece Duddle, Nathan Roberts, Mark Williams, Tom Welch.

Interchange: Wes Thomasson, Rob Gregson, Leila Hamrang, Daniel Dutson, Jordan Burns.

Tries: Roberts (3), Dutson, Greenhalgh, Welch, Williams.

Goals: Greenhalgh 2/3, Williams 4/4